The joke about telling voters on the other side that they can vote the day after the election is almost as old as democracy itself, but this is Florida, and democracy here sometimes does look like a joke.
Indeed, 12,525 people living in Pinellas County, Florida got a robocall this morning from their local elections department informing them that they had until tomorrow to turn in their absentee ballot. Whoops!
Nancy Whitlock, a spokeswoman for Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deb Clark, tells The Buzz it was all a total mistake. She says the office used an Internet calling service to inform all voters on Monday who hadn't returned their absentee ballots that they had until 7 p.m. on Election Day (tonight) to get them in. Though, since the call went out on Monday, it specifically referred to the date as "tomorrow."
For the 27,917 people who received that call last night, that date was technically correct. Unfortunately, according to the office, something screwed up and 12,525 were placed in a queue and sent out this morning. For those who received the call this morning they would have been under the impression that they had until Wednesday to get their ballot in, which isn't true, obviously.
To the department's credit, they realized their mistake and sent out a new robocall that informed the voters of the correct deadline.
Of course, if you still have an absentee ballot out, this is as good of time as any to remind you that you have until 7 p.m. tonight to drop it off at your local elections office.
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